Proctor, Courtney seem to agree on little
Local House candidates offer stark contrast
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State Rep. Bill Proctor, R-St. Augustine, and his House District 20 challenger Doug Courtney, a Palm Coast Democrat, faced each other this week in a televised debate at the County Auditorium, with each expressing widely divergent views of Florida's basic health.
Courtney said the "district, state, economy and country" were all in bad shape and needed "new leadership and new direction" to come out of the recession.
"This area has the highest unemployment in the state of Florida," he said. "My opponent has had six years to work on this. The Legislature this year will see a $2.5 billion deficit. Under the Republicans, our (state) budget increased 110 percent. We have to do better than that."
Proctor admitted that Florida is in "a mess" but added, "We have a balanced budget, Triple-A bond rating and a fully funded retirement system. A lot of states wish they could say that."
He pointed to a long list of bills he supported: Education, pediatric care, insurance, Florida School for the Deaf and the Blind, disabled veterans and historic preservation.
"We need experience, particularly in the budget area," Proctor said. "I've demonstrated an ability to operate in many different areas."
The debate, sponsored by the League of Women Voters and The St. Augustine Record, first featured a match up between state Sen. John Thrasher, R-St. Augustine, and his challenger, Democrat Deborah Gianoulis of Ponte Vedra Beach.
Proctor and Courtney immediately followed.
The questions covered include:
* Education reform priorities
Courtney said Senate Bill 6, intended to make educators more accountable by eliminating tenure and linking student performance on standardized tests with teacher performance pay, "was a travesty to education in Florida."
The bill passed the Legislature but was vetoed in April by Gov. Charlie Crist.
Courtney said, "We need more funding and fewer sacred cows, such as FCAT, which costs $78 million a year to administer. We have 239,000 teachers in the state and only one-half of one percent have been dismissed for bad performance. We also need to get rid of vouchers. And we need quality teachers."
Courtney said that of 3,600 Florida schools, fewer than 1 percent are bad enough to need intervention.
Proctor supported SB 6, adding that a similar bill may be filed again in early 2011.
He said, "I think (its provisions) should be separated from tenure. The FCAT is much abused, but we have seen Hispanic test scoring soar to near the top of the nation. So there's some merit to the FCAT."
He said vouchers are not a drain on the state's education budget, but said a bigger problem -- the Class Size Amendment -- will cost the state $40 billion over the next decade.
* Medicaid
Courtney said that more needy people require that the state to grow its economy to take care of them.
"You can only cut so much," he said. "There can be some savings by health care information technology. The more and greater jobs people have, the less they will need Medicaid. (But) it'll always be a large part of our budget."
Proctor said more jobs won't help very much.
"That will never bring in enough to care for the elderly and young," he said. "Managed care will be the answer. I'd much rather have a company earn a profit than for us to lose 10 to 20 percent in fraud. We can't reduce costs much, but we can restrain them."
* Property insurance reform
Proctor wants to deregulate the insurance industry so private companies can return to Florida and charge actuarially sound rates. He is afraid the bloated and under-funded Citizens Insurance Co., the state-run insurer of last resort, will not be able to afford to handle property damages after a significant hurricane.
Courtney said he didn't believe that.
"The rates would have to go up," he said. "People would have higher mortgage payments. You'd see a lot more foreclosed homes. We cannot afford deregulation." Proctor said Citizens, now the largest insurance company in the state, is actuarially unsound and will not be able to pay all the claims.
"We have a $2.5 trillion exposure," Proctor said. "People are used to cheap property insurance but they'll have to get used to paying more. I support private companies coming here with at least a $15 million surplus. We need a private market in Florida."
If Citizen defaults, he said, everyone with an insurance policy of any sort will pay higher premiums for years, repaying the deficit, with hurricanes coming every year.
Courtney said, "We have time. A Category 4 storm hitting Miami is a 500-year storm."
Proctor responded, "In every business, you have to give the consumer a choice. We've completely taken the consumer out of it. Rates have been suppressed for political reasons."
* Offshore drilling
Courtney said he would oppose offshore drilling, which would be "enabling our addiction to oil. We already have the ability to get away from oil. The state of Florida, with solar and wind energy, should be a leader in that, creating jobs. We can never be secure as a nation if we're addicted to oil."
Proctor said the Legislature cannot approve of disapprove of drilling offshore.
"We can only lift the ban," he said.
Asked how he would help restore Florida's economy, Courtney said, "We don't have to wait for the federal government to tell us what to do. We need to preserve tourism and to find grants and programs to help small businesses grow."
Proctor said he would free up credit for small businesses, foster biomedical research and seek the help of research universities to develop the economy.
Bio Boxes
Name: William Proctor, 77, St. Augustine
Party: Republican
Occupation: Chancellor, Flagler College
If elected, this will be Proctor's last term because of term limits.
Name: Doug Courtney, 56, Palm Coast
Party: Democratic
Occupation: president, ExecData Inc.
This is a rematch of the 2008 race with Proctor.
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